Rangers Report: Mom, Dad and Son leopards all [...]]]>

Rangers Report: Mom, Dad and Son leopards all doing fine.

Game Drive Highlights:

Southern pride lioness on Airstrip and another one on Manjets eventually ending up between Selati and Railway Line south of Dudley Boundary.
Rhino.
Mandla young male leopard on Tsepelopelo Pan.
Southern pride on Shimungwe and then Nyanzane.
Elephant herd on Military between Bush Pan Firebreak and Borehole.
Elephant herd at Kudu Crossing.
Buffalo bulls and one female at Nyathi Dam.

The Southern pride has two lionesses missing currently. One of whom distracted the males and decided to stay with them on the Wildebeest kill that had been taken over by the two males. She has struggled to rejoin the pride since then. Lately the female with the front left leg limp is also away from the pride. They two of them were about four hundred meters away from each other the other day, one of them was calling for the pride but they managed to miss each other.
The pride has six lioness and all eight cubs with them. I’m sure the lost two will join the pride again at some stage. The lionesses are looking fine but the cubs could do with some more food.

Elephant sightings have been very productive as of late. We positioned the vehicle to allow a large herd to pass below us through a crossing and received a brilliant view of these giants walking below us. One tiny baby was still figuring out the world and stumbled into an area of sand piled up by the flood and landed face first into sand, luckily a soft landing. Baby elephants can be very clumsy at stages, they are always entertaining though.

This morning we were watching a young male rhino with a mother and calf. The small rhino not more than a year and a half old all of a sudden charged the young male head on and pushed him backwards. Quite strange but I suppose if your large mother has your back you can get away with certain things.

Manda is being seen every now and then. He had a small injury on his back right leg but he will be fine. He is walking around the area he knows with confidence and is looking good. We are hardly seeing his mother but find her tracks quite often. Perhaps she has new cubs. This is simply speculation though. Mandla’s dad Sand River is being seen often. They are all doing just fine these three.

The new comer was seen today, the young male leopard with the small nick out of his left ear. He is still so very comfortable with the vehicles. We didn’t manage to get a good look at him this morning, he had settled down for a good days rest in a thick tree on the ground.

We have seen awesome bird life and been lucky with, Water Monitor lizard up close and personal, Lizard Buzzard eating some prey and the smaller yet still special sightings.

No real rain since the flood and the bush is drying out fast, patches of grass are beginning to go brown and the seep lines are drying up slowly. The mornings are cooling down, at least for the first hour or so. Today is a scorcher though and all our guests are at the local waterholes, namely the bar and pool. It’s a tough life.

Rangers Report: Mischievous Mandla young male leopard.

Game Drive Highlights:
Sand River male leopard Kwahlamba.
Southern pride south of Dudley Boundary between Railway Line and Selati.
Elephant herd on Main Road around the BB Road.
Huge elephant bull south of Marabou.
Buffalo bull in Short Pan and in Nyathi Dam.
Large elephant herd from Tom’s to Pacific.
Buffalo bulls on Main north of Kalina and Ngulube and White Dam.
Giraffe north of Dudley Boundary and zebra herd on Nkonkoni Plains.
Southern lioness on Guarrie.
Mandla on Railway Line over Selati, Ravine,Ngungunyane ending up at Rubbing Post Pan.
Huge bull elephant on Railway Line in must.
Four giraffe and one zebra on Rocky.
Rhino.
Nyala on Railway Line south of Moxam.

Game Drive Story:

We got to see an old friend the other day, the Sand River male. He strutted down the road and then sat there for pictures. What a legend. We do not see enough of this guy since the Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) dethroned him of about forty percent of his territory. It was a real treat to see him this morning, he looked powerful and trying to hunt. The leopards all know the Kudu have young this time of year, perhaps he was looking for a youngster.

The Southern pride was located while we were with Sand River. They were all sleeping with fat bellies from coming back from the northern reserve. Perhaps they managed to catch one of the buffalo that were around Nyathi Dam for many weeks. There was also the one female that showed up the day before we knew the pride was around. Maybe they even chased that female into the area only to kill her later that night. We are not sure though, what matters is that they are full happy cats and the cubs got a good feed.

Later that day we managed to get to the pride just as they were beginning to walk down the road. The entire pride apart from the one lioness still apart from the pride was there. All fifteen lions headed past our waiting vehicle. Some of my guests felt quite intimidated with fifteen lions passing by so close to the vehicle. They had only just joined the drive and I think they were still finding their bush feet. Us rangers forget that our animals in the Sabi-Sand are so comfortable with the vehicles and we forget that it can be quite a shock to have fifteen lions pass by without a covered vehicle to feel safe in. We know these cats very well and it is completely safe though. My guests were left with an awesome experience and a great sighting.

After this morning drive we heard that there was a leopard at our manager’s house. Obviously the rangers were very keen to know which leopard this was. We went to look but he was gone. However this is the weekend and our manager’s kids were at home.

Earlier they had witnessed a very large Mozambique Spitting Cobra and a Puff Adder in a fight. The Cobra was obviously trying to catch and eat the Puff Adder for which they are known for. Apparently they both managed to bite each other but the Puff Adder made a getaway over a puddle. Maybe the Cobra managed to find its prize around the corner soon after.

After we had seen to it that the leopard had left the area we got to look at some photo’s taken through the window of the house. As I looked I could see an old friend, it was Mandla! He had managed to kill a shoe in the garden, that’s rite a shoe. He dropped his kill when he was disturbed by the movements of the people within the house but soon returned to fetch his freshly killed shoe. He retrieved the kill and took it with him back to the bush. I seriously doubt he put it in a tree for later. What an unusual sighting and a good reminder that we live in the middle of the wilds of Africa. Also a good reminder that you must never leave your shoes outside in this area, perhaps a leopard will steel it! One shoe remains intact till this day.

The Southern lioness is still alone but she seems to be heading towards the pride now. We saw her last night looking just fine.

We had a flat tyre this morning in the bush. We got all the guests out of the Land Rover and started changing the flat. We were still busy and a huge bull elephant popped up onto the old Railway Line and had a good look in our direction. As he came over the hill we could smell that he was in must, bull elephants can be very unpredictable in this breeding time and can be overly aggressive. What we didn’t want was this giant coming over with all our guests standing next to the vehicle with the vehicle jacked up and going nowhere. We finished quickly and then went to have a look at him. He was a very large male with one tusk.

We had been tracking a leopard in the area this morning but all of us could not find any fresh signs of the leopard. Then Mandla young male leopard showed up in the open and there he was. We followed him while he randomly walked. He bumped into a young male impala and a small group of Kudu. He tried to catch the impala but had no luck. The Kudu seemed not too scared of this leopard once they could see him and even stood and had a good look at him for a while. We could see that he had a fresh injury on his back left leg. Maybe an injury from an attempted warthog hunt. I’m sure he will be just fine though.

Yesterday we had a great sighting of a Nyala family consisting of a large male three females and two babies. These antelope are very secretive and quite shy; they prefer to spend their time in thick bush. We waited for them to come into the open and cross the road. These shy animals need a bit of time to relax with our presence. Often these sightings are more memorable and special that the more famous Big Five.
Another example was the sighting we had of warthog’s yesterday afternoon. We found a mother warthog with her older son with four small piglets. This mother will routinely make her way into our camp during the winter dry season in search of fresh green grass. We water the lawn and camp gardens which creates a small oasis for many animals.
For this reason she is not nervous with the vehicle and all her offspring have inherited this trait. We watched the family meters away from our vehicle. They all ate the Marula fruit lying on the ground in front of us as we all enjoyed the Pumba sighting.
We had a very good sighting of six very large male Kudu. These majestic antelope are very striking and in very good nick with all the green bush we have at the moment. Another special sighting yesterday night was that of a White Faced Owl so expertly spotted by my tracker. Usually they fly off and disappear into the bush. This one stuck around and we could all get a very good look at the owl. Even the humble dung beetle rolling his ball of dung down the road is always a winner. The bush is so alive with these special sightings waiting for us to simply be patient and discover.

Rangers Report: Honeymoon leopards and the Kruger kings.

Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) mating with the Warthog Wollows female leopard northern Selati, Railway Line and Railway Road.
Elephant herd at Marula Puza spot and Old Nyathi Dam. Elephant bull Sangoma and Military.
Rhino.
Large herd of buffalo bulls east of Nyathi dam north and south of Three Dams.
One Southern pride lioness west of Marabou and south of Military.
One buffalo bull at Ngala Dam.
Seventeen buffalo bulls at Nyathi Dam.
Four elephants at Old Nyathi Dam.
Large male rhino at Vovovo Dam.
Two Kruger male lions Open Area Marabou and then Airstrip. One Southern lioness with them in the end.
Many buffalo bulls at Nyathi Dam with one female.
Elephant herd north of Ackermans puza spot.
Mandla young male leopard on Look Out Road.

Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) showed up the day after we were tracking him in the area we thought there were five leopards. He had claimed his prize, the Warthog Wollows female leopard. The same female Mandla young male leopard had found the day before. The king was back in town and had sorted all the leopard politics out, most probably just as easily as calling loudly marking his territory. The young males would have got the message and the female ready to mate would have found the king. We tend to forget how lucky us Rangers and Trackers are to witness this very rare occurrence. Xihangalasa is also still using the area as his honeymoon getaway.
We spent some quality time with a herd of elephants with an old matriarch and many youngsters with small babies. They passed by very relaxed just paces in front of our vehicle after we managed to predict their movements and park in front of them. Yesterday we found four of them splashing in a waterhole cooling off at the beginning of the drive.

We also managed to have an up close and personnel sighting of a large male rhino by realizing he was grazing short grass on a small dam wall. We parked in the direction he was heading at the end of the short grass. He slowly moved past our vehicle while my guests were very impressed with his size up on the dam wall. Today we had five rhino, two young bulls with a female and calf, a large male was interacting with the two younger males showing them whose boss.

The bull buffalo seem to be having a serious meeting at the dam of their name sake. There are seventeen bulls with one female this morning. The sudden appearance of the single lady is sure to add some tension to all that testosterone in the air.

Yesterday on the walk we found a large male buffalo heading straight at us. We tried to get his attention so that he would not bump straight into us but he kept coming at a brisk walk. Seen as we had some distance to work with we decided to walk away and give this brut some space. He kept coming and walked exactly where we were standing moments before. We managed to see that he had an injury above his left eye. Perhaps if we stood our ground with this guy we may have picked a fight that we would have got with this irritated and grumpy customer. He is still just up the road in Ngala Dam.

This morning we headed south down the Main Road looking for lion. Not long and we had discovered the tracks of the two Kruger male lions. The kings of the lion world around these parts. The tracks told the story of the kings bumping into some buffalo bulls. They chased the buffalo but there was no sign of any successful kill. Just the other day the Southern pride had attempted to hunt the same buffalo at the same place. The lion tracks then headed at pace south down the Main Road and veered off at the Notten’s BB road. We predicted their movements and soon relocated the tracks on Military Road still walking very fast. Not long down Military and we had them. The larger male was lying down but the smaller (yet stil very large) male was walking and smelling the bush. They both headed off west. We relocated them again and lost them again and managed to relocate them once more. They seemed to be on a mission. Off road they headed again towards a favorite day time resting place for our lions in the area. Tracks on the road told us that the lioness was around to. They had meanwhile found her but due to us being restricted to the roads after the flood we did not know until after we had left the sighting and she appeared later on. Soon after that they all fell asleep and they could no longer be seen from the road. We had seen the lioness the day before but today the males really showed off.

After the lions we saw an elephant herd and rhino crash very soon after each other. Leopard tracks had been found and we went to lend a hand trying to locate the young male leopard. Heading around to try cut of the tracks we just about drove past Mandla young male leopard in the tall grass. He had caught a tortoise, which I’m sure wasn’t so hard. He lay down and ate his strange kill. Crunching loudly and sitting up now and then. With lots of patience he eventually came back to the road and drank out of a large puddle next to the road. We all finally had a great sighting. He then headed down the road and off again disappearing into the long grass yet again, no doubt looking for a good place to sleep for the day. This morning we found the half shell of the Leopard tortoise. He ate everything inside the shell apart from the two front legs. He is now having to fend for himself and I’m sure the loss of regular food provided by his mother is still a bit of a blow. A tortoise breakfast had to suffice that morning.

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The bush is green and vibrant; the grass is taller than I have ever seen with every bare patch now growing tall grass. The roads are surprisingly not so bad after all the rain. Water is seeping through all the seep areas and many bog [...]]]> Rangers Report: Update from the bush after the floods.

The bush is green and vibrant; the grass is taller than I have ever seen with every bare patch now growing tall grass. The roads are surprisingly not so bad after all the rain. Water is seeping through all the seep areas and many bog like areas have appeared. Our local White Dam so famous and mentioned many times in the Rangers Reports is full and over flowing with a constant stream of water. All the drainage lines are small trickling streams.
The herbivores are in bliss and have more food than they could ever consume, the frogs have hit the jack pot and are singing from every angle during the night.
The Southern pride is just fine and all eight cubs are still alive. The entire pride was unaffected by the flood.
Notten’s female leopard is fine. Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) killed a baby impala at White Dam.. Mandla young male leopard was seen lately at Nyathi Dam. It seems all the cats are doing just fine and unaffected by the flood. The leopards are disappearing into the long grass and appearing out the other side when we are following them. Those whiskers are coming in very handy otherwise in sure they would bump into things while in the thick grasses we have after the flood.

Off roading is understandably limited due to the flood and ground being so water logged. Nevertheless the sightings have been very good as of late. As this report is being typed a large bull elephant is feeding in front of camp. After the river has passed it has created a small sand bank just in front of camp that resembles a little beach.

The word flood always creates fear in our human mind but the bush simply takes it all in its stride. The water holes are full. The vegetation is at its peak. The rivers have been renewed and sand deposits flushed clean and deposited on banks rich in nutrients for the re-growth of plants. Thick mats of reeds have been washed away allowing access to the river. Many areas that have been dry for many years are now swamp land allowing the aquatic life to move into and colonize these areas even if briefly. Many dry areas can now explode into life and get ready for the years to come with little rain.

Stay tuned for more Rangers Reports coming soon.

Rangers Report: Summary of the recent floods.

Last Monday the rains began. Tuesday saw more rain but it was not until Wednesday that the heavens opened up and the rain [...]]]>

Rangers Report: Summary of the recent floods.

Last Monday the rains began. Tuesday saw more rain but it was not until Wednesday that the heavens opened up and the rain poured down in buckets. From 1:00pm to 3:00pm on Wednesday the heaviest of the rains fell, this was it. The 2012 floods had officially begun.

The last large flood in the area was in the year 2000. This was a sustained rain over many days but the floods of last week happened quite suddenly and in three days total. Some places in the Sabi-Sand had around 500mm of rain in less than 37 hours! The 2000 floods had been described as a one in a hundred years flood but last week it happened again. The benefit of the 2000 flood was that it cleared out most of the debris on the banks of the river. This debris was responsible for blockages along the water course which allowed the water to flood the banks of the river. The debris was missing during this flood as there was not enough time to gather the same debris since 2000 which allowed the water to flow freely down river and not burst its banks due to blockages. The average annual rainfall for the Sabi-Sand is about 557mm of rain. This is over an entire year never mind over a 37 hour period.
There is a usually dry river called the Msuthlu that runs through the area we do our game drives on. This became a fast flowing river. Every single drainage line, pond, dam, stream, and river was full in a small space of time. Most of the Sabi-Sand was closed for two or three days due to the entrance roads being washed away, the only way in and out was on back roads with a 4×4.

There is a drainage line that flows in front of Notten’s Camp called Mypass. Every summer time it may flow as a small stream perhaps two or three times. This became a large stream on Tuesday and Wednesday morning but by the afternoon it had become a flowing river expanding over the plains in front of the camp. This drainage line flows directly into the Sand River around a kilometer and a half away. The Notten’s staff managed to catch about eight catfish that had somehow swum up river all the way from the Sand River just in front of camp. The camp was largely unaffected apart from the office becoming a sizable puddle. Game drives attempted to go out and guests braved the rains and managed to see general game also elephants, rhino and buffalo around camp. The cats being true cats decided to lay low and remain and a little down due to the weather. A few trees fell over and some minor damage from rushing water around the camp but nothing serious. Notten’s came through the flood with minor scratches and maybe a bruise or two but all is well and life goes on in the bush.

The Kruger was also affected but due to its size and number of tourists many people were stranded but soon all safely exited the flooding Park. The Sabie River within the Park and on the southern end of our traversing area measured a high water mark of 7.126m last Wednesday with an estimated flow of 6500t a second.

However nature is strong and the bush was largely unaffected by the floods. The camp is back to normal and everything is running smoothly and no one was hurt. The animals that make the headlines on the rangers reports all seem fine and apart from getting very wet are carrying on with life in the wilds of the African bush.

Rangers Report: Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) male leopard with a baby Kudu kill.

Game Drive Highlights:

Southern pride [...]]]>

Sand River male leopard.

Rangers Report: Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) male leopard with a baby Kudu kill.

Game Drive Highlights:

Southern pride still on Ingwe Drive with fat bellies.
Buffalo bull in Ukuthula Pan.
Buffalo bull herd on Ravine.
Five rhino Selati junction Ravine.
Elephant bull between Railway Line and Selati north of Ackermans.
Little Bush female leopard with an almost finished baby impala kill west of Nigrescens Pan.
Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) on Jonse’s Jaunt and later that day with a baby Kudu kill west of Open Area Nyathi.
Rhino mother and calf on Chichaan Goose.
Large elephant herd on the southern end of Fort.
Sand River male west of Southern Arm Montengo Drive south of Shipene koppies.
Elephant bull Weeping Plains.
Elephant herd Beaumont Pan.

Game Drive Story:

The Southern pride had only decided to move after two days of digesting the Waterbuck kill. They are currently down at the Sabie river beyond were any vehicle can reach them. They are having a good shady rest day and perhaps a buffalo might wonder straight into their ambush. Still no sign of the missing two females though. They will show up at some stage I’m sure.

The buffalo bull herd in the same general area. The very large horned male is with them. The loner bull in still around Ngala dam, he moved up the road to Ukuthula Pan for yesterday and today. The group of five rhino was just up the road from the buffalo bulls except one young male was now replaced by the dominant bull in the area. No doubt showing these young males who is really in charge of the area.

The Little Bush female leopard had killed a baby impala. She is usually not the greatest viewing leopard around and can be quite grumpy sometimes but with a kill she is much more pleasant. We watched as she simply caught up with some sleep in the tree with the neck of the impala dangling above her. One lonely and scruffy hyena lay nearby. The hyena was very relaxed with our vehicle. Later the hyena decided that it was far better to go off and try find something more appealing.

The elephant herds are returning to the area with great gusto. We are finding them all over the north and in large herds. We watched two teenagers pushing each other around and having a very good game. The nearby mothers couldn’t care less about their playful game and carries on feeding calmly. A lovely relaxed bull all by himself yesterday seemed to enjoy the company of the vehicle and kept getting a little bit closer, we would move off and give him a little space. He would slowly move towards us again feeding on the green grass as he came. Sometimes the bulls can be a little grumpy but when you find a relaxed large bull elephant there is nothing else out here that can make you feel nice and small and humble. Just a tad of closeness also helps when you are still safe but feel shadowed by these giants.

Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) is in town. He managed to kill a baby Kudu during the middle of the day not far from camp. We revisited the kill and witnessed the unraveling of this special event. This leopard is a huge male and a very impressing sighting. He is the dominant male in the area. We managed to time the sighting perfectly to see him on one evening dragging the half eaten kill into the tree and the next evening watched him climb up the tree and feed on the carcass. To see a large male so effortlessly and with such power climb up a tall tree is a special sighting. One of my guess got the whole thing on video. Coming down was not so pretty, the tree was a tall straight Marula and when it was time for the leopard to come down he jumped from quite a height and thumped down to earth with an audible thud. This kill will sustain him for many days to come. Last night after finishing the kill the now fat cat walked to the nearby water hole and lay down for some digesting and rest. He will have to start patrolling his territory and make sure no other male has moved in while he was with his kill.

The Notten’s female was sighted last night but soon disappeared into some very thick bush; the new young male has been seen every now and then. We also got to see an old friend recently. While waiting to see the lions we rounded the corner and there walking through the crossing was the Sand River male leopard. He is still a very impressive male leopard. He confidently walked straight at us as if to say you better just get out of my way because I’m walking here. Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) is responsible for dethroning the Sand River male and subsequently giving him his blind right eye. Looking at my photo’s however I can clearly see that the cloudy grey of his eye is getting less over time. I highly doubt that he will ever regain sight in that eye but you never know. Nature is often much more tough that we think. We followed him through some very rocky areas until we lost him. We headed around the rocky area and he was lying on a large rock waiting as if to say here I am by the way. Later he settled in under a shady bush and decided it would be a perfect place for the days sleep.

I am sorry to say that the reports will take a two week absence why I am away but I’m sure the other rangers will full me in when I get back and I will let you all know.

Rangers Report: Summer time in the African bush.

Game Drive Highlights:
Young male leopard from Ndlovo Pan to Ackermans Boundary.
Buffalo bull in a puddle west of Ngala Dam and a herd of buffalo bulls in Nyathi Dam.
Large male elephant east of the junction of Mosheri’s firebreak and Pela Jambo.
Three rhino east of Ingwe drive.
Short second horned rhino in Ellis Park Pan.
Five rhino close to Tortilus.
Buffalo bulls at Rubbing Post Pan.
Southern pride west of the old elephant bones on Matikitok. Then on Ingwe drive.
Notten’s female twice on Main Road south and north of the BB road.

Game Drive Story:

Full summer is here, green green tall grass and life everywhere. The bush is thick with lush grown and all the herbivores are fat and happy with the abundant food. The bird life is awesome and the bugs are out in full force. The dung beetles are rolling their balls and the water holes are filling up. Summer in the African Bush.

The new young male leopard is creating quite a stir. He is being found on a regular basis and is providing us with some very good leopard sightings. He is a cool calm confident cat and is walking around like he owns his little patch of the reserve. To my knowledge he has not yet bumped into the king of the leopard world around these parts, Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male). This is the new male’s biggest threat but at the same time this new young gun may be the biggest threat to the Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male). At the moment there is no competition for the Xihangalasa (Bicycle Crossing male) in the area but there is this new male leopard and Mandla, both in the waiting to become future dominant males in the Sabi-Sand. As usual we will just have to wait and see, these outcomes are way beyond our control. We are simply very lucky observers of the African Bush and all it has to offer.

I did hear that Mandla and Xihangalasa had yet another confrontation while I was away. Apparently they had a little scrap and then Mandla wisely backed off and climbed a tree. Xihangalasa waited under the tree for a while and then decided is wasn’t worth the effort to go face first into Mandla in the tree and left the scene.

The lazy buffalo bulls are in their regular water holes lately in the heat of the day. We found one bull in the same puddle two afternoon drives in a row. Maybe lucky number three this afternoon. Rhino are easy to find lately. We watched a group of five yesterday, one mother and calf with three young males. The males were having a good go at each other every now and then and we decided to not get in the middle of the rhino politics. The noises rhino make are hard to explain. They growl and even squeal sometimes. Male rhino fighting can sound like a pride of lions fighting over a kill in the distance and is very loud indeed. The new male with the stumpy short second horn has broken away from his female and calf company and is once again a little shy now that he is alone.

The Notten’s female is hanging around in the south eastern corner of Notten’s. We found tracks for her on Military Road the other day and started tracking. She in the mean while was very close and simply taking a short cut corner on to the road we had already driven on. While tracking a vehicle from another reserve stopped about sixty meters away. The ranger waved his arms to attract my attention. He came driving up and asked what I was doing, I answered I’m tracking this leopard. He asked if I wanted to see the tracks or the leopard, I answered the leopard. He said she was just around the corner. Oh really. I ran back to the vehicle and rounded the corner. There she was sitting in the road watching some Kudu. We had just missed her but could track backwards and with a little neighborly help we had her. She watched the Kudu intently, figuring out what she was going to do. She then made a large circle to get in front of the herd. We followed. She leopard stalked straight past our vehicle very low to the ground and then down the road getting to within maybe fifteen to twenty meters of her prey. Kudu are normally too large for leopards but there was one youngster very close. One mother stared in a direction for a long time, she just knew something was wrong but eventually calmed down. After much waiting the Kudu moved off and had a lucky escape. That was yesterday morning. This morning heading back to camp we found her in the same general area. We gave her some space as we were going to be the only vehicle she would see for the morning but she decided that she would like to come lie close by and show off a little. She eventually walked off and we let her go. This cat is often happy to move at times when other leopards are fast asleep.

The Southern pride has six lioness and eight cubs currently. No doubt the other two lionesses are with the Kruger males, either mating or distracting them as the pride and cubs make a sneaky get away. This morning they had just finished a Waterbuck kill and they all look nice and fat. The cubs have large round well fed bellies and are looking quite large now. What an awesome pride these guys are. We followed them walking through the bush until they all settled down in a shady thicket for the long day of sleeping for which lions are so famous for.

The crocodile is still around, someone got to see him killing and eating a large cat fish just the other day. As we were watching the hippo and croc a Dideric Cuckoo came darting into the tree that has many Masked Weaver nests in it. Dideric Cuckoo’s will lay their eggs in other bird’s nests especially among Weaver birds and then they leave the poor Weaver to raise their chicks. This morning the Weavers were having none of this and around five or six Weavers banded together and bombarded the Cuckoo and chased it off immediately in the defense of their own offspring. This was great to actually see happening.

Not long after that we found a lovely herd of Impala. One of the females was intently staring at a nearby pond. We stopped and watched, she alarm called. Normally this is a sign that there is danger around, usually a lion or leopard. One Impala doesn’t always mean much though. Maybe it was just one getting a fright for a silly reason. The herd then all alarm called! Must be a leopard waiting in the pan. We drove up to the pan only to find a very large Water Monitor Lizard! I have never seen Impala alarm calling for a Monitor Lizard before but this is the bush after all. It was a great sighting though. The Impala got over themselves fairly soon afterwards when they realized that a large lizard was no threat to either the large or small impala.

This morning we got to spend some time with two giants of the bush, two separate large male elephants, both very happy with our presence and both very impressive. They were eating as usual; you don’t get that big without eating all day. One had large tusks and the other had managed to break one of his tusks. The big bulls always make you feel very small which is a great feeling.

A special mention is going out to the Thompson family who was just here for two nights and are avid followers of this report. Glad you guys could visit and see some of the super stars that keep this report interesting. Have a great week in the Kruger and stay tuned for more updates from the bush.

Rangers Report: Young male leopard seems to [...]]]>

Rangers Report: Young male leopard seems to be sticking around.

Game Drive Highlights:

Elephant herd on White Dam Road south of the drainage line. Elephant bull in the area.
Elephant bull at Nyathi Dam.
Notten’s female leopard on Squirrel Boundary east of Steve’s pan.
Three rhino and a herd of zebra on Nigrescens.
Giraffe on Dudley Boundary north of Rocky and another herd on Themeda Run.
Wildebeest of Airstrip.
Buffalo bulls old Nyathi Dam.
Three rhino on Selati south of Rocky and three rhino on Wamanaru junction with Mangele.
Southern pride in and out of the reserve in one day.
Young male leopard on Airstrip north of Tsema kanya.

Game Drive Story:
Freshly back from short leave and I’m glad to be back in the bush. Evening drive after a day of fixing roads and off we went. Apparently it has been very hard to find elephants in the week I was off. We stopped to look at some Impala (antelope) and my tracker and I heard some elephants not too far off. Our guests had no idea we were now looking for elephants. Around the corner and we started picking up on tracks of a herd of elephants. Just before we thought we may have gone too far there they were. A lovely herd. One large female approached and so we moved slightly forward and allowed for some room for the entire herd to follow the lead female. They did exactly that and the herd past by one by one. One small teenage male was behind the rest of the herd. He calmly moved past but before he left he made himself large and eye balled my guests. I love it when the teenagers act all big and tough but they really still little elephants.

Rhino are quite easy to come across. We have seen them in three’s lately. Mother and calf with a bull nearby. The new to the area bull with the stumped second horn has found himself a female. Apparently he was very aggressive with my head ranger last week and came for the vehicle. My tracker informed me of this past event and so we gave him some space in the sighting.
We found some buffalo bulls at their name sake dam. They all were covered in black mud and having a very good wollow. I still think they are one of the coolest things around.

The Notten’s female leopard was found. We followed her as she was looking for some food. We could see that she needed a good feed. She is looking big and strong though but she was clearly hunting. She does a random zig zag through the bush movement when she is hoping to stumble upon some unsuspecting prey. Later on someone managed to find Mandla, her almost two year old son not too far off. He apparently headed to a large puddle. He launched himself into the puddle only to come up with a terrapin (water tortoise). They urinate when attached and feel the need to defend themselves; this produces a very pungent and quite horrible smell. This was not enough to put off the leopard however who carried on trying to get into its kill.

Kudu, waterbuck, zebra with a small foal, duiker, steenbok, impala, baboon, wildebeest and even a lovely Nyala herd have been seen making up very good general game sightings.

The young male leopard showed up yesterday morning. He has been in the area for a month now. He is so very comfortable with the vehicle which makes him such a fascinating and awesome leopard to watch. This morning he was simply going around in circles and smelling his environment. He clearly smelt the bushes were other territorial leopards have scent marked their territories.

The Southern pride is doing well. They managed to appear for just one day and then disappear beyond our traversing area. There were tracks of the two Kruger males with them and perhaps this is why they had moved so far and so quickly. This pride is covering some serious territory in the last few months and are not confined to the far south anymore.

We had an up close sighting of a Bateleur eagle this morning. They are often shy and do not allow a vehicle to get to close but this individual was very comfortable with our presence.

Good to be back in the bush and a brand new year has arrived. Happy new year everyone.